www.imo.org. No.3 2007 IMO NEWS 13

Of all the peacetime hazards at sea, none is more fearsome, unyielding, and potentially deadly to an unwary seaman than an iceberg. Despite ingenuity, resourcefulness, and almost a century of technical advances, these natural wonders have resisted human efforts to control or destroy them. Calving from Greenland’s glaciers – frequently as long as a city block and towering hundreds of feet above the sea surface – these majestic ancient bergs are driven and steered by ocean currents into the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic. The United States Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol (IIP) has been responsible for monitoring these lanes for iceberg danger since 1913. The IIP receives iceberg information from a variety of sources, enters those data into drift and deterioration computer models, then distributes the Limit of All Known Ice (LAKI) to the maritime community. The Ice Patrol has amassed an enviable safety record, with not a single reported loss of life or property due to collision with an iceberg outside their advertised LAKI. The principal origins of the icebergs that reach the North Atlantic are the 100 tidewater glaciers of West Greenland. Between 10,000 and 15,000 icebergs are calved each year and carried north along the Greenland coast, around the western side of Baffin Bay, and then south along the east coasts of Baffin Island, Labrador, and Newfoundland to the Grand Banks. With drafts of 300-600 feet, the progress of larger icebergs is frequently slowed due to grounding. Smaller icebergs often become sidetracked, banging along the fringes of an Arctic island or caught in a cove along the Labrador coast. The total drift for an iceberg is about 1,800 nautical miles and will take from 11 months to three years to reach the North Atlantic shipping lanes. The icy cold Labrador Current, running southeastward along the northeast coast of Canada, carries icebergs south to the vicinity of the Grand Banks and into the great circle shipping lanes between Europe and the major ports of the northeast United States and Canada. In this area, the Labrador Current clashes with the warm northeastward-flowing Gulf Stream. The temperature difference between the two currents can exceed 20 degrees Celsius. The mixing of air atop these two different water masses causes the dense fog for which this area is well known. This thick shroud of fog and the high concentration of transatlantic shipping vessels, oil platforms, and fishing boats in the area compound the danger represented by icebergs. The combination of these factors exists nowhere else on earth and so makes the waters of the Grand Banks one of the most dangerous marine areas in the world. The enormous mass and the tremendous environmental forces acting on icebergs render efforts to restrain, destroy, or significantly alter their course largely ineffective. Therefore, tracking these icebergs and publishing the LAKI has proved the most effective means of promoting safe navigation. The United States Coast Guard formally commences its service of ice observation whenever the presence of icebergs threatens the primary shipping routes between Europe and North America. Officially, according to the SOLAS convention, the iceberg season runs from 15 February to 1 July each year, but the IIP commences operations when iceberg conditions dictate and continues the effort until the threat no longer exists. Except during unusually heavy ice years, the Grand Banks is normally iceberg free from August through January. It took one of the greatest marine disasters of all times - the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912 - to arouse public demand for international cooperation to deal with iceberg danger. This disaster was the prime impetus for the establishment of the International Ice Patrol and the United States Coast Guard has been carrying out this duty since 1913. Throughout IIP’s history the individuals responsible for carrying out this mission have been focused on continuous improvement. Iceberg scouting began with ships patrolling the foggy waters of the North Atlantic in search of the southernmost iceberg. The focus shifted from shipboard reconnaissance to aerial reconnaissance in 1946; however, visibility was still the limiting factor in iceberg detection. With the advent and operational implementation of airborne radars, the primary sensor for iceberg detection changed from the human eye to radars. Still, despite the numerous technological advances in iceberg scouting, the task today is the same as it was in 1914, and finding a relatively small chunk of ice in the 500,000 square nautical miles of ocean for which the IIP is responsible remains extremely challenging. Today, in a manner very similar to the early cutters, aircraft and ice observers rotate every two weeks during the ice season to maintain regular ice patrols in the vicinity of the Grand Banks. The Ice Patrol relies heavily on the support of merchant traffic transiting through the operational area, both for reports of icebergs and sea surface temperatures (SST), to aid in iceberg melt and deterioration predictions. Merchant vessels typically account for around 25% of all iceberg reports received. The Ice Patrol has a strong customer relations programme targeted at developing relationships with transatlantic mariners to provide the most timely and accurate ice information possible. In 2005, the Ice Patrol initiated a programme to recognize the ship that made the most contributions through SST or iceberg reports. Named after the British steamer Carpathia, which came to the aid of the victims of the Titanic, the Carpathia award is presented annually to the ship that makes the most information reports. In 2006, the M/V Mattea, home ported in Arnold’s Cove Station, Newfoundland was the recipient for the second time, with 131 reports of SST and ice. All ships are encouraged to immediately report sightings of ice to COMINTICEPAT GROTON CT, CT through INMARSAT, United States Coast Guard Communication Stations, or Canadian Coast Guard Marine Communications and Traffic Services. Ships are encouraged to make reports even if “no ice” is sighted, as knowledge of ice-free regions is important to assessing the threat to shipping. When reporting ice, ships are requested to include the following information: